Notices of Preparation for Environmental Impact Reports

A Notice of Preparation is a brief notice sent by a Lead Agency to notify
the Responsible Agencies, Trustee Agencies, and other public or federal agencies that the Lead Agency plans to prepare an EIR for the project. The purpose of the notice is to solicit guidance from those agencies as to the scope and content of the environmental information to be included in the EIR.

Housing Element Update

Notice of Preparation of a Draft EIR

Description:

In July 2008, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors adopted the 2008 Housing Element.  Pursuant to state housing law it was submitted to the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for a required review for consistency with state law.  HCD determined that the County’s Housing Element was not in compliance with the provisions of state law concerning adequate inventory of land to provide affordable housing for lower income households.  Therefore, the County is required to amend the Housing Element and re-zone select properties to allow the development of multi-family residential dwellings at a minimum density of 20 dwelling units/acre “by right.”  This means that a proposed project under this zoning would be allowed without a discretionary permit and would not be subject to further review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). 

In addition to the re-zoning program, several other amendments to the Non-Coastal and Coastal Zoning Ordinances and Subdivision Ordinance that were identified as programs in the 2008 Housing Element are being processed concurrently with the Housing Element revisions for rezoning.

In August 2009, the Board of Supervisors reviewed the draft amendments to the Housing Element and authorized the Planning Division to prepare a Supplement to the 2005 Subsequent Environmental Impact Report for the Focused General Plan Update (2005 EIR and 2007 Addendum) for the proposed re-zoning program and other proposed amendments to the Non-Coastal and Coastal Zoning Ordinances and Subdivision Ordinance. While the major portion of the environmental analysis will focus on eight sites identified for potential rezoning, additional analysis pertaining to other ordinance amendments will be necessary.  It is anticipated that these discussions will be at the programmatic level.

Location:  Countywide

Review Period Start and End Date: Comments on the scope of analysis of the EIR must be submitted in writing no later than 30 days after receipt of the Notice of Preparation.

Scoping Meeting Date: October 1, 2009

Project Planners:  Kari Finley, kari.finley@ventura.org or 805/654-3327 and Shelley Sussman, shelley.sussman@ventura.org or 805/654-2493.